The Second Quest
by Swissarmypolearm
Summary: A sequel of sorts to the main Castle Crashers storyline that features the adventures of the original four heroes' descendants as they battle new challenges in their quest against evil. My first fanfic, please critique.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: The Legendary Four**

****One hundred years ago, a team of four heroes fought to bring back the King's four daughters and the Crystal of Light from the forces of an evil wizard whose name is still unknown. The heroes were known simply by the color of uniform they wore- Red, Blue, Green, and Orange. Combining strength of arms with their own unique elemental powers, the brave knights were able to destroy the evil wizard and reclaim what had been taken, and their adventures were remembered by storytellers across the land.

After their victory, the heroes went their separate ways. Orange, a legendary archer, married Princess Elaina, who he had rescued from the Barbarian horde. Unfortunately, in the final battle, the evil wizard hit him with a powerful psychic curse that gradually ate away at his sanity. Despite this, he and Elaina managed to live out a relatively peaceful life in Conehead territory and raise a family. Green, the fastest swordsman in the team, took his bride, Princess Vivian, far from the Church where she had almost been forced into marriage with a Conehead lord. They eventually settled on the Ninja Pirate Islands in the south and adapted to the local culture. Blue, the strongest of all the heroes, lived a long and happy life in Home Castle nobility with Princess Claire, rescued from the frigid Ice World. Red, the team's most powerful mage, spurned Princess Emilia after seeing her clownish appearance, and left for the ancient ruins of the Desert, never to be heard from again. Emilia, too, left the castle shortly afterwards, although where she went remains a mystery.

The Kingdom, meanwhile, grew in size, as regions previously controlled by the evil wizard swore allegiance in gratitude. The Crystal of Light's benevolent power allowed the Kingdom to prosper once more, and the entire known world entered an unprecedented era of peace. The royal line passed through the King's son, Prince Arin, who had fought in the Grey Guard alongside the legendary heroes. All, in short, was well in the Kingdom.

Yet a prophecy began to circulate among the people that indicated something was about to change. No one knew who originated it, and its phrasing changed slightly every time it was repeated, but there were some common threads. It would occur a century after the knights' triumph, it would be caused by the "humorless overlord" and their minions, and it would also involve four descendants of the heroes- the "evil-blooded", the one "born of poison and shadows", the "shattered one", and the "sandwich born". No one in power took it seriously- after all, it couldn't even be traced back to a reliable oracle and had spread through word of mouth. Still, the common folk spoke of it widely, and as the hundredth Heroes' Day approached, curiosity and apprehension over whether the prophecy would come true rose to a fever pitch.

Which is where our story begins...


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Welcome to Hero Camp**

Matt Blueson squeezed painfully into the door of his new dorm at the castle. He was a bit early for Hero Camp, he knew, but he was eager to follow in the storied footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, even if the closest thing he could get was a one-week summer camp that reenacted the training that knights went through in the days of the Heroes. The King reasoned that it was unnecessary to go through the entire process of knight training in this age of peace, but Matt always thought that this was foolish- what if the kingdom were suddenly attacked?

As Matt was putting down his bags, a black blur in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned around, but saw nothing. Then, a quiet, clearly enunciated voice that seemingly came from out of nowhere caught him by surprise.

"Best to be careful around sandwich users. They can get a little... destructive." A small, wiry figure covered entirely in black cloth except for a pair of piercing dark eyes crept warily out of the corner. Matt recognized it as the garb of a Ninja Pirate. "Why are you eating sandwiches in here, anyway?

"Uh, I'm not. I'm just naturally this size. It's okay, people make that mistake all the time. What's a Ninja Pir-"

"Just ninja." the figure said in interruption, pointing to his forehead, which lacked the distinctive skull-and-crossbones design that adorned most Ninja Pirates. "Name's... Katsumi. You can call me Katsu." These words were accompanied by a small, curt bow.

Matt nodded. "I'm Matt Blueson. Nice to meet you, Katsu." The ninja simply looked back at him in silence. He sat awkwardly for a while before continuing. "So, what, exactly, is a ninja doing here at Hero Camp?

Katsu shrugged slightly. "I hate water, so I came here to see if I could put my abilities to use for the Kingdom, because they certainly wouldn't have been much use on the open sea, you know, what with all the vomiting. This is a training camp, correct?

"Well, sort of. It's a week-long camp designed to reenact the training that the knights went through in the days of- what is that?"

An indistinct muttering noise began to fill the room, and the doorknob turned abruptly. A young man in Conehead garb charged through shouting, eyes red with some sort of indefinable rage. His fists flailed about maniacally at imagined foes.

"Just let me at them! I'll tear them limb from limb until their blood stains the earth itself! I'll rip out their-" Suddenly, he calmed down and sighed, the fire fading from his eyes. "Sorry for alarming you. I guess I went too long without taking my medication." With that, he pulled out a jar of crushed herbs and swallowed some.

Matt stepped forward cautiously. "And you are?"

"Oh, I'm Darin Degarne. Sorry again for that little episode- you see, I have a bit of a... disorder. If I don't take my medication often enough, one of my other personalities comes out. There are quite a few, you see, and they vary quite a bit. You just saw one of the angrier ones, I'm afraid."

"Ah. So, uh, should I remind you to take your medication periodically, then? How often?"

"Once every few hours is okay. Honestly, it's kind of unpredictable."

Katsu turned toward the open door and Matt noticed someone else lounging against the wall. He was dangerously thin-looking, with pronounced veins and dark red hair. "Oh, I get the room with the crazy one, the ninja and the sandwich titan. Figures." he remarked, before collapsing onto a nearby cot. "Well, that was an extremely tiring walk. Honestly, this castle should have more rooms on the first floor. I'm Erik Claret, by the way."

"It's, uh... nice to meet you, Erik." replied Matt, slightly taken aback by Erik's fast speech.

A call to come to the main hall for the introductory speech echoed throughout the halls. The four roommates headed out the door and down the stairs, ignoring Erik's complaints. They joined a group of approximately fifty others in the hall. King Thomas stood up to the podium, to a smattering of applause.

"Yes, yes, thank you. Gentlemen, welcome to Hero Camp! Here, you can relive the training that the Heroes themselves went through, and learn some of the skills that they learned. Here you can learn how to fight with sword or bow, how to harness the magic energy that lives inside you. You will receive the best combat training available in our peaceful Kingdom, and follow in the footsteps of those whose triumph we shall honor in a week's time."

Matt raised his hand. "What if the Kingdom is attacked? Won't we need a force of warriors who have had more than a week's training?"

King Thomas chuckled. "We have had almost a century of peace, and there's no reason to believe we won't have another."

"But what about the Prophecy?" Matt retorted. "It says that something is going to change. Some evil is going to attack soon, and there's a good chance that, as a descendant of Blue, I'm involved, too. What then?

The king rolled his eyes. "The Prophecy is nothing but a myth perpetuated by those who want the age of the Heroes back. Besides, even if it was originally true, I'm sure much of its meaning has been lost in its spread. Now head on over to the frog to receive your weapon with the other knights."

Biting back his reply, Matt turned to leave the hall. Something within him made him think that the king was about to be proven very, very wrong.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Evil Blood**

Erik picked himself up off the ground for what seemed like the thousandth time. Melee sparring had not gone well for him- his anemic physique had not been kind to him in receiving blows, and he wasn't particularly fast, either. His swings were fairly strong somehow, which felt like it was more due to some strange galvanizing force in his veins than any actual strength on his part. Matt's voice cut through the painful fog in his mind. "You have to block more, Erik. Right now my attacks are just knocking you over." He doubted that the little red shield he had picked up from the frog would do him much good against Matt's custom-forged hammer. That thing must have weighed at least twice as much as Erik did.

"Hold on a second." he croaked. "Need some food." He quickly ducked over to the platter of food on hand and selected a particularly rare cut of meat. As he ripped into it, he could feel its juices flowing into him, healing his cracked bones and clearing his mind. As he ate, he was dimly aware of Katsu and Darin each sparring with their own partners. He idly noted their different fighting styles; Katsu seemed to prefer speed, evasion, and surprise; while Darin was far more defensive and tended to hide behind his shield while making quick stabs with his lightsaber.

As Erik slowly finished his meat and Matt was tapping his foot impatiently, he heard the Blacksmith's call to move on to archery training and silently sighed in relief. "Well, that was.. fun." he said, turning to Matt. "But, alas, it's over. What a shame, eh?" With that, he thrust his curved blade into its hilt and turned to leave.

The archery range was a bare area of the castle's courtyard with a row of targets and dummies on one end and a pile of bows and arrows on the other. A man in a Thief hood presided over the range. He gestured toward the bows and arrows. "Mffglrh", he said through his hood.

Taking this as an invitation to begin shooting, Erik walked over to the pile and picked up a bow. As expected, he was horribly inaccurate and ungainly, only managing to hit one of the targets- not the one he was aiming for, but a hit nonetheless. The archery master gave him a disappointed "Hrallm gugh", before demonstrating proper firing technique, a style that looked very little like Erik's.

One by one, the others began to try shooting, with varying degrees of success. Matt broke two bows before managing to fire the third daintily with only a couple fingers, a technique that still overshot most of the targets. Katsu was actually quite decent, hitting three of the seven targets despite his seemingly having never even seen a bow before. A couple of unfortunate youths missed every single target, which generated a sense of inordinate pride in Erik.

Darin was the last to step up. His shots were fired off with a speed and precision noticeably greater than those of the others, and each landed within six inches or so of the bullseye. As the others were marveling at this show of relative skill, Erik noticed faint curls of smoke curling up from the targets that Darin had hit. As Erik noticed this, Darin suddenly hesitated. "Marine palette proverbs successively clack through improper yogurt." he babbled as he drunkenly turned around and fired an arrow over his shoulder. The targets burst into flame.

"Dammit, I forgot to remind him about his medicine!" shouted Matt as he rushed over to the well. "Hrefl ftagn grumnf!" shouted the archery master in alarm. Katsu plucked the jar of herbs out of Darin's pocket and began to force-feed it to him.

Erik stood in the middle of this chaos, unsure what to do. Then he saw the arrow that Darin had fired over his shoulder was lodged, smoldering, in one of the castle's wooden support beams. If it stayed in there for much longer, it could burn down the entire castle. Without even thinking, Erik raised his hand, and a deep red aura covered his vision. He felt a strange release of energy, and the next thing he knew the beam and the walls around it were covered in blood.

He looked around the area, panicked that he might have hurt someone. Yet the only one that had been harmed was himself- a small cut had appeared on his right hand. Erik shrugged at this development in a false display of nonchalance. "Well, at least I stopped the fire, right?."

Matt stared at him open-mouthed, still holding his bucket of water from where he had been dumping it on the burning targets. The archery master gave a shocked "Ergflm" before motioning to the students to continue on to magic lessons. Katsu walked over to Erik on the way there and tapped him on the shoulder. "Was that magic of some sort? If it is, it is unlike any magic style I have ever heard of."

"Well, either it was my magic, or I suddenly developed a particularly severe paper cut." said Erik sarcastically. "If it's so strange, maybe the magic teacher can tell me about it." As they entered the magic classroom, the teacher, a stern-looking woman with silver hair and flowing robes, pulled Erik aside as if reading his thoughts. "It has come to my attention that you have demonstrated unusual magic energies, Mr. Claret. I wish to speak with you about this after class." With this, she let him go and he rejoined the rest of the group.

"It is now time for you to learn the magical arts." said the teacher, addressing the entire class. "My name is Mrs. Eldran and I will be your teacher. In order to cast a spell, you must first find the power within you, and let some of it seep out of your body. This should become visible as a faint glow. Now, does everyone have an aura ready?"

Auras of varying colors covered the crowd- most were white, but there were quite a few other colors as well. Erik refrained from readying his own aura- he didn't want another paper cut, or worse. He noticed that Matt lacked an aura as well, despite clenching his face up in a series of increasingly hilarious expressions.

"Now," Mrs. Eldran said, "be sure you're facing away from anyone else, and let the power flow out of your hand." An assortment of magical effects proceeded to litter the stone chamber. Most, including Darin's, were showers of a few arrows, although Darin's steamed and smoldered where they fell. Others had ice, lightning, and other elements shooting out of their hands. Katsu's was a cloud of noxious-looking black smoke that flowed over the fallen arrows, obscuring them from view. Matt was still clenching his face up and disgruntledly muttering something about everyone in his family having ice powers except for him.

The rest of the lesson entailed a lesson in the various ways in which raw magical energy could be harnessed (there weren't many), as well as further practice of magic energy against various dummies. After the lesson, Erik walked over to Mrs. Eldran. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. What you demonstrated in the courtyard is quite... troubling. In your family, is there a history of any magic in particular?"

"Well, my mother could shoot a little lightning, and she always said she was descended from a great lightning mage who came from around here. She sent me to Hero Camp because she thought I might have inherited some of his talents. None of that included anything about shooting blood out of my hands, though."

"Really? A lightning mage? Hmm, that might mean... Never mind. Did you inherit any...unique physical traits from her?"

"What, you mean the veins? No, those are from my dad. He always said they were a badge of the legendary Claret family history, though he never really did say what that meant. He couldn't use magic, or at least he never did in front of me."

Mrs. Eldran paused for a second. "I think I might know what your father meant. Come with me."

The magic teacher led Erik through a series of hallways before arriving at the castle library. Upon arriving, she pulled out a dusty old tome whose cover read _The Blood-Mage Wars_. She flipped through the pages before landing on a picture that depicted an army of people who all bore a strange resemblance to Erik, besieging what looked like an early version of the Home Castle. As Erik looked further into the old artwork, he could see the attacking army firing blood out of their hands just as he had done, as well as making defenders erupt with wounds and controlling bizarre golems made of stitched-together body parts, in addition to other, far more gruesome things.

"These," said Mrs. Eldran, "are your ancestors. The Blood Mages, possibly the most magically powerful people ever to exist, sacrificed their own vitality in order to manipulate magic energy in ways that the greatest of our mages could only have nightmares about. They based their empire in the eastern desert and conquered countless nations before an alliance of ten powers, including those of the Kingdom, fought back and destroyed them centuries before the Heroes were even born. The ruins of their cities are still inhabited today, as you probably know."

Erik stepped back. "Wait. I'm descended from a race of crazy magical blood-tyrants, and I even grew up in their capital city?"

"That's right. We believe the evil wizard the Heroes opposed drew much of his inspiration from their lost writings. Because of the evil that their works spawned so long after their passing, our forces attempted to completely erase the Blood Mages from the face of the earth, so that they might never reappear. You are living proof that they were unsuccessful."

"So, does this mean I'll be put to death or something? I mean, that seems a little harsh."

"No. You haven't shown evidence of being a threat to the Kingdom yet. So long as you stay in line, you'll have nothing to worry about. Move along, then. I've told you what you need to know, and it's almost time for dinner." With that, Erik headed down to the main hall, reflecting on what he had learned.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: History Repeats Itself**

It was the final day of Hero Camp, and Darin was relieved that it was finally over. He had grown in skill, true, but the strain of maintaining his most neutral personality had been difficult for him. Fortunately, there was never another incident quite like the embarrassing one in the archery range, but it still felt as though his other personalities were struggling to take hold, to have their turn in control.

As he sat down to the Heroes' Day feast, he carefully chewed and swallowed another handful of herbs. It would be especially awful if he were to suddenly change personalities here, at such a time of revelry and joy. If his vioent personality got out while in such a crowded space, it would be catastrophic.

The others sat down next to him. "All right, let's get this party started!" said Erik, grasping up his knife and fork eagerly. Katsu held them up uncertainly- he was still unused to Kingdom cuisine and had to be constantly reminded (mostly by Matt) how to eat it properly, although manners weren't exactly the focal point of most feasts at the Castle.

Matt was unusually taciturn this evening, though, and Darin noticed he had his gigantic hammer half-drawn, as if expecting an attack at any moment. "Why so glum, Matt?" he asked. "We're celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Heroes' victory by eating huge amounts of food, and you look like skeletons are about to burst out of the walls."

"It's the prophecy." Matt replied. "It was foretold that something would attack the Kingdom, about a century after they defeated the evil wizard. Well, that time is now, and we're-

Darin's attention was diverted by a waitress approaching the table with their food. Immediately a chaotic chorus of voices began chattering in his head.

"Seduce her with passion and charm!"

"Behead her and drink her blood!"

"Help her out- that tray looks heavy!"

"Take all the food for yourself, man!"

"Release pedantic orbital shovels!"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" That last voice Darin recognized as his own, and he realized he had shouted these words out loud. After looking around at the suddenly silent hall, he abashedly muttered an apology before turning to his food and disinterestedly picking at it, his earlier enthusiasm gone.

Matt, as usual, noted the culinary minutiae of each bit of his enormous panoply of food and drink far more than the others at the table would care to listen, but as he did so, his eyes kept darting back and forth, looking for potential danger. Erik greedily sucked the fluids out of all of his food, which was mostly near-raw meat. Katsu, meanwhile, seemed to be selectively stabbing bits of his food and cautiously bringing them to his mouth, as if he were afraid they would run away from him.

"You going to drink that?" asked Matt, pointing to Katsu's untouched mug of ale.

"No. I don't drink. I've found it tastes awful and messes with my mind. Besides, all the Ninja Pirates drank, so this was a convenient way to slip in a little passive-aggressive rebellion."

"Your loss. This brew is amazing. Particularly malty, not too much bitterness..." Darin tuned out again. He wondered how Matt could be distracted so easily by good food and drink. Then again, reflecting on the incident with the waitress, he wasn't one to talk.

King Thomas stood up to give an address, something about how the Heroes were such great men who brought the Kingdom peace, and how his son would be following in their example when he was old enough. Darin's mind felt strangely fogged, which was odd, as he only had about a half-cup of ale. As he looked out upon the town surrounding the castle, he saw a strange silhouette among them for a second. Then, it was gone, and he silently blamed it on his confused mind.

The king finished his speech, and the hall stood up to applaud and cheer loudly. A fair number of them fell over, as if all coordination had left them. They didn't seem to mind this, and a few were outright unconscious. This seemed far too severe to be simply drunkenness, especially considering that the drinks had only started pouring around ten minutes ago.

Darin was just thinking about how odd this was when a strange craft suddenly flew into the hall. It was a strange hodgepodge of designs, some Industrialist, some Conehead, and some completely foreign. It was piloted by a figure wrapped from head to toe in gray and brown cloth. As it hovered above the hall, its pilot stood up and addressed the confused crowd.

"Greetings, people of Home Castle." said the figure in a strange, toneless voice. "I am Mage-Tyrant Eris. For those of you still conscious enough to understand what I'm saying, I need your Crystal and the four maidens that control its power." Eris looked towards the cowering king and queen. "Oh, we have a young ruler here, don't we? Nothing but a single infant son to his name? That's okay, I honestly didn't think this king would make the idiotic mistake his great-grandfather did of putting his daughters in charge of it, anyway."

Eris fired off a strange light spell that split into four upon hitting the Crystal, each beam landing on a particular young lady in the hall. The mage-tyrant gave a signal, and a hooded figure that had been lounging in the corner stood up and became surrounded by a transparent aura. Each of the four maidens was suddenly encased in a clear prison, and began to levitate toward Eris's craft.

Matt charged the hooded figure, who dodged his enormous hammer with contemptuous ease. Katsu, meanwhile, leapt up to grab the vehicle's underside and began stabbing at it with his sharpened sai. After a few strikes, what seemed to Darin's clouded vision like a freak gust of black wind swept Katsu off. He landed with an unceremonious crunch on one of the tables and lay still.

As the last maiden arrived on the craft, Eris muttered something to them before touching the Crystal. Instead of turning blood-red as it had the last time it had been taken, the Crystal became a dull beige, dimming considerably. The last thing Darin saw before losing consciousness was Eris's craft flying out of the south window into the gathering night.


End file.
